Shin Sekai Yori – 03

Crytic flashback in place of an opening? Check, and I’m still loving the way it grips me with the questions and unsettling tone. This time, we’re brought 570 years into modern Japan’s future – 70 years past the “Emperor of Delight” scene from episode 2 – as we follow a band of assassins on their attack of a Kanto palace. All traces of modern civilization seem to have already disappeared by this time, seeing as how the attackers were using crude bombs and swords, and it also points to them being some non-psychic rebelling faction. Interestingly, the leader states that there aren’t many PKs left, which I’m assuming stands for psychokinetics, and that they can change the future now, which puts the village in a completely different light. Here I was thinking the psychic populace was the dominant race in the world, especially given the disturbing displays in the flashbacks of the last two episodes. But what if in the story’s present time they are the controlled minority? In any case, change the future the assassins seem to have, as we see them methodically working their way to the “Emperor of Merciful Lights” and successfully taking him out in a one-two strike at the cost of their lives. It seems that one tyrannical monarchy came to an end, but a different societal order must’ve taken its place to have resulted in the village we’re seeing now. As usual, Shin Sekai Yori isn’t letting anything up, and I wouldn’t have it any other way. My love for A-1 also goes out here, who illustrates the flashback scene in a beautifully stylized, manga/comic-esque artstyle.

Otherwise, episode 3 seems to strike away from the pair of introductory episodes and the impression of the series they’ve formed up until now. As we follow the children’s journey deeper into the wilderness, we’re also leaving behind the darkly pervasive atmosphere of the village. Rather than sinister, this episode plays up latent vibes of fantastical surrealism, as the world continues to build through the exploration of the kids and we continue learning alongside them. I really enjoy the way world-exposition is handled in this manner, which strikes me as a particularly organic method of story-telling instead of relying on monologues and voiceover narration. (It still lapses into it from time to time.) “Show, don’t tell” is a rule I find myself wishing more shows would practice, and Shin Sekai Yori executes it with a uncommon finesse.

It’s encouraging to see a show so invested into its world-building, especially here where we focus on a millennium worth of changes to the ecosystem. Bizarre creatures like the giant mutant crabs and the Minoshiro are commonplace, their presence attributed to the human subconscious somehow accelerating evolution. Alongside these creatures are hundreds of new species that were documented only in the last few centuries. Meanwhile, rumors and stories of mythical creatures (in this case, the titular False Minoshiro and the Blowdog) helps to define the reality of this strange world. The small details in the fantastical flora and fauna are also an appreciated touch. The story’s origin from novels shows in these intricacies; it gives a sizable heft to the weight of the story’s thousand-year history and how this has shaped its present world, making this is one of the best realized and most unique settings I’ve seen in quite some time.

It felt to me that much of the episode was devoted to lulling the audience into this sense of surrealism as we watch the children go about their camping activities while the episode slowly immersed us into its world. So much so that when the end of the episode came, it gave a compelling contrast to the sudden, hard hitting sci-fi twist: The mystical False Minoshiro that the children caught turns out to be an interface of an ancient library. I really liked the way the supernatural veil in the story was pierced from a completely different, sciency-wiamy angle, and this twist brings plenty to question, least of all the contents of this library. When did mankind get so technologically advanced to have been able to create this biological artificial intelligence capable of storing 980 petabytes of data, given the psychic apocalypse we saw in the flashbacks? The answer to this as well as any other I have might just come next episode with what seems to be the reveal of the world’s history by the False Minoshiro.

On a separate note, the actions of the False Minoshiro also brings up another interesting point where Saki remarks how the light hypnotism gave her the same feelings she had during the ritual seen the episode 1. Again, I’m speculating that the true extents of their Juryoku are being sealed off rather than taken away, most likely through hypnotism as the episode suggests, but the purpose behind the action remains unclear. Furthermore, Satoru brings up how people who come into contact with the False Minoshiro die, and now that we know it’s no simple creature, it’s possible that this rumor could’ve stemmed from authoritative forces suppressing information on the library terminal.

The only thing I really felt conflicted about in the episode is the way the village has been portrayed up until now with its secular and closely controlled nature, which makes me wonder why they would even allow the children to proceed on a self-supervised camping trip, giving them free reign over their actions and Juryoku abilities. It’s just the one thing that bugs me about it when everything else we’ve seen has been closely guided under adult supervision, making this an anomaly in what has been a very consistent portrayal.

Ever so slightly, we’re beginning to see the relationship chart of the group take shape. At the forefront of this is Saki and Shun, who we see on a night canoeing date here. (For a twelve year old, that’s an impressively smooth move by Shun with the river reflection trick. Nicely played.) Admittedly, the show hasn’t made this particularly subtle with how we always see Saki deferring to Shun’s judgments, blush at his praises and react defensibly to Satoru’s prodding. But unlike Saki’s feelings of romance, Shun seems to mostly be intrigued by her unorthodox mentality and uncanny perception. This was displayed last episode with the hole covering disc and here with the leased mutant crabs, where both times we see him markedly impressed by her situational awareness, and also when he encouraged her on in the bold gesture of saving the Queerat, against their better judgment.

Then we come to Satoru who constantly pokes, prods and shows off to the other kids. His constant provocation of Saki and her infatuation with Shun stands out in particular, making it seem as though he is showing an interest in her, albeit in a clumsily childish manner. Maria appears to be naturally friendly with Saki, but along with the foreboding predictions made last episode, her rebuke of Mamoru’s compliment here seemed to hint at the superficiality of the bond between the two girls. It could also be seen as Maria being possessive of Mamoru, what with her hand-holding during the competition last episode and here, where we hardly see the two separated. Honestly though, It’s hard to tell what’s what at this early stage in the story; furthermore they are still very much children who’ve yet to grasp their own feelings in the story, asides from Saki and Shun’s obvious show of mutual interest.

Still, it’s an interesting direction they took this episode in, and it paid off pretty damn well with that twist of an ending. The next episode seems to be the point where cogs of Shin Sekai Yori’s story start moving, and I’m eagerly awaiting to see how its going to play out.

Can’t say that this is the best. It’s ok so far but still lacking.(Most likely in the likeable characters section) The sleeping gems this season are kingdom and Ixion Saga. If you can look past kingdoms 3d animation for the first few episodes it starts to blend in with the regular animation and look normal but the story is excellent 4.5/5 stars.

The plot is about to kick in, if the MAL description is anything to go by.

I’m personally rooting for my boy Satoru. Shun is cool and all and has amazing eyes, but he and Saki are kinda boring together becuase I like seeing Saki figured up and with Shun she’s just quiet and submissive. That river trick was slick as hell though. Gotta give the kid props.

Maria will clearly cause Second Impact.

Anyway, this was based off a novel and not an LN, right? Then it’s not foolish of me to hope they’re adapting the whole thing in these 24 episodes?

Satoru is annoying, rash and frankly haven’t shown much beyond that loud rude overconfident attitude of his to account for him to be a better match for Saki since he brings out mostly annoyance and anger in her, cuts off her line of thought and all around enjoys being a douche 24/7 sure he can give a competent answer at times but he’s hard to get along with, if he is jealous of Shun having Saki’s attention he have only himself to blame since Shun doesn’t constantly piss her off

If they got together it would be a (verbally) abusive relationship, heck I’d hate to see him grow up still keeping his current attitude

Shun is clam and collective, a little TOO collective and seems to be hiding something.

Saki is better off single at this point, they’re sorta young after all…

Seems the lives thy have been living is some kind of fabricated lie but for what purpose?

Satoru doesn’t even have to try to annoy Saki. She seems to like yelling at him. All of episode 2 consisted of him saying something and her yelling at him and hitting him. I think she even headbutted him in the nose once and most of his jokes aren’t even mean-spirited. He just seems to have more influence over her emotions than the others. She’s a lot more mean to him than he is to her so to pin the blame solely on Satoru is unfair. The two of them are just combustible together.

Actually biological/organic HDDs are not just pure Sci-fi and aren’t impractical at all .. biological matter has shown massive storage capabilities much bigger than any non-organic material/method known today, sure there are still many hurdles to overcome but biological/organic HDDs might become a reality in our daily lives soon .. at least as the most ideal date backup and archiving method ever.

For example .. get this interesting bit of info .. “DNA storage has its limitations. As I mentioned earlier, it’s not re-writable, and it’s not random access. Its latency is also too high for it to be practical for anything other than archival storage” .. compare that with the use of the Minoshiro as a living archive with around 980 petabytes worth of archived data stored in its DNA and AI (to save the people the hassle of sorting manually through all this data) you will see they got it just right.

This is a really well done show – the message was sent correctly and properly. Everything fit, everything makes sense. There is a coherence in this story an it is showing and I love how they make ordinary things extraordinary. I have decided – I’m going to stick with this anime till the end. I will see it trough.

Honestly, the transition of animation from the opening flashback to the episode itself was beyond mesmerizing and well done. Then you get right into the characters themselves whom can hold your interest in such a way, despite being … well children. A great deal of enjoyment to me came from their interactions with one another and their environment; it’s just what you might expect to see in kids their age but when coupled with their abilities – which we still don’t know the full extent of – and upbringing, it can lead to the possibility of something different and extraordinary.

Hey Asobi! I think there could be a slight mistranslation in some of the subs. They says “PK が途絶える今なら。”in Japanese. The English translation was “Now that there is hardly anyone with PK left…” but that’s only one way to read it. You could also translate it as “Now when the PK power stops…” The scene then flashes to a red moon which may indicate something, or not. I don’t necessarily think that PK users were dying out, but somehow at this moment, they could not access that power or very poorly. So the Emperor, who is clearly a PK user, would be vulnerable to conventional attacks. Well, that’s one interpretation.

Didn’t Shun say that temple are a record on history of 2-3 thousand years ago, the oldest temple in Japan was built in 645AD.
I thought that the date was around 3000AD, but what if it was 3500 or 4000AD?
The dates at the start always say XXX years After, after what?
The first episode or the end of the PK vs Normal war?
What if the war lasted a couple of centuries…

I don’t think the village is the ruled minority, if it was why would they take away, heavily implied killing, children without Gravity? Shouldn’t they be part or the ruling Majority instead?
I think it’s more like a ruling minority, a oligarchy, with all powers in the hands of Pks,nd they kill, or take away, “normals” ‘couse they fear another rebellion…

Actually, it’s more likely that the whole “Those who meet the Minoshiro die” rumors are actually nothing more than rumors to scare people away from the library disguised as a Minoshiro .. specially since the kids were talking about a researcher who met one .. and when they asked Satoru if that researcher died Satoru answered “No he didn’t, but he might soon”.

I suppose the adults thought the death rumor coupled with the hypnotizing mechanism the faux Minoshiro has will be enough deterrent to prevent anyone from capturing it .. apparently they underestimated the kids abilities (and luck).

… And the show scrapes through barely (Partially due to Asobi’s comments about the ending, which kept me going).

Will be blunt: Found the “world-building” dragged out. Again, just me having a problem with how the story is being told, but I didn’t need to see the kids on their boats and going out on midnight love cruises.

As with the previous episodes, the opening scene was gripping. It makes me wonder how much more entertained I’d be if the series was about the events that took place 500 years before the current timeline. That bit of information about the Minoshiro about half way through the episode was a refreshing break from banter between the kids. Revelation of the Minoshiro’s true purpose wasn’t that big a twist, but it does assure viewers that we’ll be delving into the past and into the stories behind those visceral opening scenes pretty soon.

I’m probably the only one who is lost here but I just don’t understand what this series is all about? I mean from settings to plot to relationship between characters… I’m not dumb or anything but for some reason its just hard to understand what is what.

Can anyone explain briefly the setting of this series and what happened in this episode?

It’s tough to throw a viewer/reader into a strange world and give them enough context so
that your story can be measured against their experiences. I still see signs of this with
this series – it is still rough around the edges.

Simple inconsistencies, easily remidied, that confuse the viewer are there. After they landed
on the “forbidden” side for a “quick” look, suddenly (before seeing the creature) they’re going
to have a meal there? It make me wonder if I missed something – maybe I did?

I’m hoping all of these distinct elements: the Minoshiro, the Queerat will play an important
role in the story telling and aren’t just there for the eye-candy/shock aspect.

But there are other aspects that are very well represented. Saki × Shun – I think the hand was
placed there with the expectation of it being within reach to be caressed. It’s really an uncomfortable
way of leaning back, and the look on her face was definitely mission accomplished. Classic non-eye
contact shy hand-holding, IMHO.

The Saki and Shun boat scene was beautiful ^^ Obviously they are 12 , and therefore a bit young for anything to properly happen , but I still support the pairing .
This anime is very intriguing , and I cna’t wait for the “bloody history” to be revealed .

Sure the romance can’t go too far with 12 years old kids, but i found (by chance) artwork on the internet showing grown-up versions of the characters (i guess they are 16-18 in the new artwork) meaning there is going to be a time-jump sooner or later, so the romance is surely going to play a bigger role after they grow up.

From the New World is way ahead of competition .. it’s shaping up to be one of my top fav series (meaing in my all-time list XD) .. the new short story (which again was animated in a new unique style, and like i guesses it’s now clear this is intentional taht each one of those stories had a different style) was a blast to watch despite how short it was .. and the part with the weird-slug-like-artificial-life-form-AI-library was just creepy .. i got Ghibli’s Princess Mononoke Forest God level of creepiness here (which if you don’t know is quite high on the creepiness-o-meter) XD

And after Saki violent assault (vandalism XD) I’m surprised it was willing to co-operate and answer the kids questions even after what Saki did to it (specially since it tried to escape the first time they encountered it by hypnotizing the kids) .. considering the rumors about those who meet it and then die shortly after we can guess these are rumors spread by those humans who rule the village who clearly don’t want anyone knowing about this library .. they probably didn’t expect the children to overcome the hypnotizing effect as well as the fear of death induced by the rumors.

Also .. seeing the preview it is clear that it will answer the kids questions and suspicions and the whole facade the adults in the village worked so hard to build is going to fall apart and the children will finally find the truth about what happened to the world.

And i’m already seeing the romance between Saki and Shun building up, with Shun pulling off some smooth moves (making the river a mirror to reflect the sky and touching her hand) to win Saki’s heart (like he didn’t already long before this trip, but i guess he at least is returning some of the emotions she showed towards him with her constant support and praise, he and the other kids noticed that for sure).

By the way, the AniDB.net site has artwork for all the characters grown-up versions if anyone wants to check that (there is clearly going to be a time-jump soon in the main story thread).

Interestingly, I haven’t looked at the wikis before this, and am surprised to find out that the children are actually ‘exiled’ – though is it the missing kids or the ‘graduated’ kids?

I wasn’t prepared to see an anachronistic element (the animal library) of the anime and was sent with a wth feeling o.o
I’m curious though whether the series will be any dark or horror, definitely not seeing any ecchi like the MU entry of the manga says. Felt creepy in the beginning but now it’s more like Dennou Coil.

Direction of series still feels too open for me at the moment. Hope that it doesn’t disappoint. Could be a hit if done right.

I wouldn’t call it ecchi but one of the previews of the series had what looked like an intimate romance scene between two of the main characters .. i’m guessing we are gonna get to that after the kids grow up (there is already artwork around for their looks after they grew up 5 or 6 more years) .. probably there is going to be some time-jump soon .. and possibly connected to the so called “exile” we read about in the series previews.

In the second preview trailer you can check at 1:33 where you can clearly see grown up Saki and Shun being very intimate with each other.

WTH was that down-vote for !!!? .. people can be weird sometimes .. i’m not even stating an opinion so someone could disagree with my post and down vote it, i’m stating well-known facts about the series that anyone interested about in the series should know .. SIGH *facepalm*

No worries HunterWulf. Got that while commenting on Kokoro Connect last season. Even for multifaceted comments i made that were objective and clearly non-offensive, it gets down voted. Sometimes to 40+ times.

Obviously its either trolls who lack the capicity to voice their opinions are doing it or faggots who truly hate and slam the show. Either way, they both lack the mental and intellectual capacity to read, reply or analyse your comment.

The show is doing the slow paced boring route, I’ll probably just start fast fowarding through the episodes if this continues.All the kiddies are annoying, but Saki is the most annoying unoriginal character by far.

Oops, did I say Saki? I meant Naru, oops did I say Naru? I meant Kagome, oops did I say Kagome? I meant Kaname Chidori, oops did I say Kaname Chidori? I meant every other violent annoying ass female anime character that needs to shut the hell up and get their ass whooped reaaaaally good.

I guess i know one of the sources of the retarded down-votes now, look kid, if you don’t like a show don’t be an idiot and waste your time watching it (and our time here with your pointless trolling) .. if you can’t grasp concepts like world building or character development then please go back to your retarded shonen shows or whatever crap you watch.

And also a little bit of advice, don’t bother replying cause anything you say will look like this to me —> “BLAH BLAH BLAH BLAH BLAH” .. ok ^_^

Listen retard, the mad one here is the retarded kid who is watching a show which he hates (enough to wish to skip through the episodes) and thinks all the characters in it are crappy and annoying .. so fuck off and go troll somewhere else .. please .. the internet doesn’t need retardation and idiocy.

I need to speak up though: Don’t watch something if you don’t like it? That’s outright unfair judgement. I honestly didn’t like what I saw in the first episode, so should I have dropped this? Would it do justice to the people who produced this, that I throw this whole series aside before I’ve even seen a quarter of it?

Look, negative opinions exist. That doesn’t mean the person with such opinions is watching a series solely to find ways to trash talk about it. To say things like “being unable to grasp world-building and character development” and “go back to watching your shounen shows” just shows your bias and lack of maturity. You DO know that Shinsekai Yori has been classified as a series made for the shounen demographic, don’t you?

Same here! Since episode 2, I’ve been wondering if i’m the only one who thinks so.

Maybe it’s because the adult Saki is telling the story from some point in the future, so she kind of reviews the beautiful teenage past filled with friendship, just before everyone found out the truth of the world.

It’s quite interesting, since you brought it up. I actually think that letting the children go and have free reign is the best way of weeding out which would be the problem children for the totalitarian society and which were more obedient. After all, if you’ve always got eyes on you, you’ll probably behave even if you plan rebellion in secret (like what Saki’s dad made a point on before) whereas when you let kids run wild, you can see their intentions more clearly. Especially kids, who tend to act very differently depending on if they’re in front of adults or not.

Sorry Junglepenguin but your wise-ass ranting about maturity doesn’t make any sense, defending retarded trolls doesn’t make you any less of one yourself … it is clear he is here to trash talk the show, pick fights and act like the fucking idiot he is .. and every single reply he made proves that.

And yes if you don’t like the show don’t watch it, it’s no judgment .. it’s a simple advice .. there is no fucking logic in watching something you completely don’t like then going around bitching about it .. i don’t like sports shows .. that’s why i don’t sit on my ass all day watching them .. nor do i go around like an idiot bitching about them on their fan sites or blogs (which is the very DEFINITION of TROLLING) .. so please stop trying to defend that idiot because you are making one of yourself by doing so (although it’s an old trolling technique to use a new name and try to sound all wise to defend the troll .. but i won’t accuse you of that cause it doesn’t matter either way).

And Shin Sekai Yori is shoenen !!!!? .. seriously !!!.. what drugs are you on !!!!? .. Shin Sekai Yori is ANYTHING but shonen .. try watching a shows like “Bokura no” to understand that just because the main characters are children it doesn’t make the show a shonen one .. SIGH.

I don’t know what to say. I suppose I’ll start with this: Don’t get any more mad than you already are, but you got pretty much shot yourself in the foot with every point you made. There really is no point in arguing because it does nothing but dirty the otherwise relatively clean and friendly comments section, but I’ll just point out a few things to you.

– I am not a troll, as you have so ignorantly assumed.
– I am not defending whoever you’re referring to, as you have also so ignorantly assumed.
– You misunderstood my point about judgement.
– Having a piece of advice doesn’t give you the right to start swearing at people for not sharing your school of thought.
– Educational documentaries bore the crap out of thousands, yet they are essential in educating communities about general knowledge. Is there no logic in sitting down and learning about WWII through live footage of the aftermath?
– Are people not entitled to speak their mind, even if they have points that are disagreeable, and especially so on the free internet?
– Wow, this. Do you truly know the definition of “trolling”? Because it seems like you’ve warped it into something completely different to suit your needs.
– Okay then, tell me: What genre is SSY? Do you even know what the definition of “shounen” is?
– And a personal gripe: “XD”? How can anyone take you seriously after that?

But really, why are you so disturbed by this? Your own advice can be applied here: If you don’t like what some have to say, just ignore them or avoid them completely.

I can only apologize to everyone else for feeding this eyesore of an argument, but I just had to get some things straightened out.

I think this show actually stands out for me, which is saying something, considering how damn strong the season is. There is something very creepy but intriguing about it. The events played out so far may not seem all that significant plot wise, but I think they are well served in terms of character development and setting up the stage for the gory discovery that’s soon to come. Overall, excellent episode and frustrating cliff hanger.

It’s late, nobody is probably going to read this, but here’s my own observations on this anime:

- excellent background music during this episode’s prologue. I mean, I’m looking for the OST now, just because of this music.
- nightmare animals and new animals? It looks like the “god power” that the new humans have was used to make new creatures. Not surprising, but what is surprising is that someone still had the knowledge after the wars to successfully make a viable animal with the right internal systems, etc. The False Minoshiro is an interesting animal because it has a defense against humans with hypnotic spikes, followed by telepathy.
- the village that the children come from appears to control all of its’ inhabitants by controlling their “god power” from the youngest age. Rather than have PK-capable and non-PK-capable live together, the elders appear to cull non-PK children, as well as other PK-capable children that do not live according to “the rules”. The result is a careful narrowing of the “god power” PK abilities into socially acceptable uses. Parents who lose children are upset but do not challenge the system. Children who begin to use their PK powers outside the restricted ranges “disappear”. So this means that the village is ruled by an oligarchy of Enforcers who know the true range of their “god power”, and can operate outside the hypnotized limits imposed upon everyone else.
- Saki accidentally wearing her “rose-colored glasses” (an old sci-fi trope from an old novel) is not affected by the hypnotic spikes of the False Minoshiro. Why didn’t all the children pull out sunglasses when they found out? The rose-colored glasses allow Saki, and then the other children, to learn knowledge hidden by society, and break society’s self-imposed limits. Saki realizes that the purification rite was also hypnotism, and may be the major effort to restrict children’s PK powers from “god power” to more manageable, limited PK powers.

The next episode should be the hidden history not taught to the children, of the “god power” gone catastrophic between the haves and the have-nots, the resultant wars, the assassinations shown in the preview, to the solution the village found. The episode after that is most likely the adults finding out what the children have done, with exile, not death, as a result. Because the children break through their limited programming and learn to use the PK as “god power”, not just telekinesis but matter creation and reality bending? The village’s restrictions apply to the adults as well, because the mother complained of losing children, but she did not rebel against the hidden Enforcers.

Obviously this indicates that the village does not have enough Enforcers among the oligarchy to stop a rebellion. They just murder children individually as needed, and rely upon societal restrictions to keep the others from using the PK power as “god power”.

So the children in two or three episodes are going to get exiled from their village, or they run away as a group to escape the murdering Enforcers. Either way, they are going to have to learn to live on their own in the new world. If they can unlock their PK powers into “god mode”, this will help, but then you run into “monsters from the id” in Forbidden Planet as the interpersonal relationships between the children break down.